Petition Extension
The poaching crisis is escalating at an alarming rate fueled by Chinese demand for ivory. It is being carried out by very sophisticated gang related individuals. As such, WorldWomenWork is planning to concentrate much its efforts in 2012 in helping to tackle this urgent problem. We are therefore extending the time frame for our petition to November 1st in order to maximize its impact. Please share with your friends and urge them to sign the petition. We have to stop this slaughter.
Film Update
WorldWomenWork and Swell Pictures are in the process of producing a film on the crisis and have done and are doing a number of interviews, including Crawford Allen, Director of TRAFFIC, North America, Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Founder and CEO Save the Elephants, Carter Roberts, President and CEO World Willdlife Fund U.S., Ginette Hemley, Senior Vice President, Conservation and Science. We will be announcing the release date of the film as soon as we have one. Watch this space!
All of us at Elephant Watch and Save the Elephants, have been deeply shocked at the tragic killing of Khadija in Samburu, the last adult female of the SWAHILI LADIES. One by one her whole family had been killed last year and she was looking after her young and 5 orphans. In early June she had been badly wounded. We kept a close watch on her movements and on the 24th, STE with the help of Ian Craig immobilised her when she came into the Reserve, they treated her wounds, put a collar on her and injected a massive dose of antibiotics and vitamins. With difficulty she managed to pull herself up on to her feet, and wandered off slowly. We were able to follow her wandering and she was gradually getting better. For some reason she kept going south towards the “bad lands”. On the night of July 13th in the light of the full moon as she wandered towards the river she was gunned down on the southern boundary line, in a barrage of bullets. We found her faceless with 8 bullet wounds in her body, the collar removed and hidden nearby. Her tusks had immediately been hacked off and taken to a trader.
The Chinese Road Phenomenon and The Last Great Tuskers
Despite the potential benefits for development, a new Chinese-Built Road has brought a number of problems to this once remote area. Incidents of poaching and bush meat hunting have soared since the construction camp was established. Additionally, wildlife is being hit by fast moving trucks.
(Click Here to View Video about the Chinese Road)
Update on the Chinese Road Project and The Last Great Tuskers:
from Lucy King, Chief Operations Officer, Save The Elephants:
With the help of donations like yours, “The Chinese road is being monitored every week and we’re identifying the big tusker elephants which are now few and far between. Amongst the elephants of northern Kenya there are still a handful of huge elephant bulls carrying majestic tusks. They are at the mercy of the poachers and we fear this recent poaching outbreak is the worst news for those old boys.”
An appeal from WorldWomenWork in support of Save the Elephants:
We are living in a world of over population, stressed ecosystems, poverty, greed and extreme wealth. Elephants seem to be taking a last stand. It is unacceptable that these majestic creatures should be gunned down with extreme cruelty to satisfy the greed of the Chinese. A war is taking place, anti poaching patrols are at the mercy of these guns too. It is our duty to give our support to those who are doing everything within their power to stop this useless killing.
Funds are needed desperately. Click to donate support for:
Aerial surveys to spot carcasses and poachers
A car for quick response on the ground to gun shots and alarms from volunteer scouts.
Picture of Prunella the elephant was taken by David Dabbalen on 30th April
I recently received the following report from Iain Douglas-Hamilton in Kenya. World Women Work supports two projects in Samburu National Reserve in northern Kenya – Save The Elephants and the Elephant Monitoring Project – and it is distressing when we have to report endangered animals, especially our majestic African elephants. We try to provide nice elephant pictures but in this case we hope that by highlighting the problem of elephant poaching we can rally support in stopping it.
Iain reports – We have a poaching crisis in the Mt Kenya forests that I thought you should be aware, reported by Associated Press yesterday (Elephants killed near Prince William, Kate cabin). Out of our seven elephants that we collared in December and January, already four are dead. The most recent was the elephant Prunella who died last week, caught in a gigantic snare presumably dying of thirst and starvation just before David and a Kenya Wildlife Service rescue team who arrived on the scene after trekking through unbelievable thick forest and broken country. We are now coping with the emergency in collaboration with the Kenya Wildlife Service, Northern Rangelands Trust, Lewa and the Woodley Mt. Kenya Woodley Trust. We are glad that we were able to help identify this crisis surrounding radio tracking and thank our associates and our very generous donors who paid for the collars and the helicopter borne darting operation. This was greatly facilitated by Ian Craig and Kenya Wildlife Service working with Save The Elephants.
You can also see our video from Samburu National Park – Elephants in Peril. And, of course a contribution to help our work in supporting Iain’s Save The Elephants project is always appreciated!
Save the Elephants has been monitoring elephants in Northern Kenya since 1995 through two key methods: individual identification and monitoring, and remote tracking using collars. STE is also heavily involved with monitoring the illegal killing of elephants in Samburu and Laikipia districts and works closely with the Kenya Wildlife Service to share data and identify poaching hotspots. Unfortunately, not only is poaching still widely evident in northern Kenya, but STE and KWS are starting to see smaller and smaller ivory tusks being confiscated off poachers. Any elephant carrying decent sized tusks these days will almost certainly be at threat from poachers during his or her lifetime. Amongst the elephants of northern Kenya there are still a handful of huge elephant bulls carrying majestic tusks. These large-tusked, old bull elephants carry some of the best genetics of the population and their survival is critical if their successful genes are to be passed onto the next generation.
STE already monitors some of these large bulls but resources are tight and the distances that they have to travel to monitor and collar these bulls are vast. WWW is helping to support STE’s efforts to monitor and track these last great tuskers and to assist with their protection.
The Chinese Road Phenomenon
Since 2007 the wild northern road that stretches from Mount Kenya up to the border of Ethiopia has been under intense construction by a Chinese Road company. The conversion of a rough track to a tarmac super-highway is anticipated to bring faster access to remote areas of northern Kenya helping to improve business links and tourism opportunities. Unfortunately the new road passes directly between three national reserves, Samburu, Buffalo Springs and Shaba. Save the Elephants works in all three of these reserves monitoring and tracking elephant movements to help us understand elephant behaviour and how elephants use the environment. Despite the potential benefits for development, the highway has brought a number of problems to this once remote area. Incidents of poaching and bush meat hunting have soared since the construction camp was established next to Shaba. Additionally, wildlife is being hit by fast moving trucks as there are no speed bumps or traffic calming measures presently in place along the stretch of road passing through the reserves.
Two incidents of elephants and their calves being hit by trucks have been carefully reported on by STE staff but not all incidents will be so carefully tracked due to the time consuming nature of monitoring the road kill reports. WWW is helping to provide resources to STE to enable them to monitor and report on any road kill incidents that involve elephants and any other endangered species. Additionally the funds will support STE’s efforts to engage in a dialogue with the road company and county council officers to get better sign postage and traffic alert measures along the highway. These methods should help to warn drivers that they are entering a wildlife migration zone and that careful driving is required to avoid hitting crossing animals. STE will also continue to report all incidents of poached or injured elephants to Kenya Wildlife Service to assist them with controlling poaching outbreaks in the area.
Elephant Expert Iain Douglas-Hamilton Receives 2010 Indianapolis Prize
Indianapolis Zoo Press Release
June 3, 2010
WASHINGTON, June 3, 2010 /PRNewswire/ — Relentless in his lifelong devotion to the elephants’ survival, Save the Elephants founder Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Ph.D., has been named the 2010 recipient of the Indianapolis Prize, the world’s leading award for animal conservation. In recognition for his lifetime achievements, Dr. Douglas-Hamilton will receive $100,000 and the Lilly Medal at a gala ceremony presented by Cummins Inc. on Sept. 25, 2010, at The Westin Hotel in Indianapolis.
The colorful career of Iain Douglas-Hamilton has included being squashed by a rhino, targeted by poachers, and poked by elephants’ tusks. He has suffered malaria, hepatitis and other diseases so exotic most people have never even heard of them – not to mention the plane crashes he has survived. He has persevered through severe droughts and a flood so powerful it washed away years of research. So why does he endure all this? One reason – to save elephants.
Nepal and Elephant Nature Park Thailand April 2010
I am more committed than ever to trying to make people understand that the beautiful things that World Women Work sells often come from the most chaotic places in the world. One such being , Nepal. I have just spent 4 days there and it is hard to describe what was once such an idyllic place is today so polluted, overwhelmed with cars, buses, motorcycles all spewing forth horrible fumes and too many people whose garbage is everywhere with a few sacred cows mixed in. The magnificent pashmina sweaters and shawls that I buy are made by untouchables. The creator of them is deeply involved in human rights. The constitution is being written and who knows what is going to happen. But out of this come magnificent things for World Women Work which have been created by the hands of women and men who are empowered because you buy them. I had lunch with the girls from Dolpo who I met 4 years ago two of whom are recipients of WWW scholarships and are now studying in Kathmandu.
And then the abused elephants at The Elephant Nature Park tell their own stories of horror at the hands of men. One weeps looking into the eyes of another being that is so ancient, magnificent and full of wisdom. Bua Loi with the broken back leg rescued a year and a half ago is thriving with her new friend. I hope that she has forgotten the tortuous years of logging, forced breeding and begging on the streets of Bangkok. Lanna, another World Women Work rescue, is the constant companion of Medo, whose pelvis was broken by forced breeding. Today they walk unchained probably for the first time in their lives under the constant watchful eyes of their mahouts being elephants. The last night in Chiang Mai after dinner a begging elephant walks the street by the restaurant among buses, cars and motorbikes in a stew of pollution..
I want to update you on Losing the Elephants as a lot has happened!
It has has been a wrenching experience, one moment total agony, disbelief, the next joy.
I spent 2 weeks with the Swell Pictures crew in November filming the second part, the rescue of an elephant at the Surin Elephant Roundup with Lek. The people of Surin were traditionally excellent at capturing elephants in Cambodia and then training them as working animals. Today it’s entertainment to make a living, reenactment of past century battles with drugged elephants, rides and selling. We arrived in Surin after an 18hour drive. I felt a sense of foreboding. In the chaos of the elephant breakfast and rides an elephant lost it after being teased with food and attacked the woman who was hospitalized with a coma – don’t know the outcome. From there we went to the Army grounds where many elephants are being kept to look at one Lek hoped to buy, but she had died. We find another lady about 30 who has a broken leg from a logging accident in Burma, almost blind in one eye and then 5 years of begging on the streets of Bangkok. This is one of the most desperate scenes I have ever seen. Mahouts and families are living under tarpaulins surrounded by cooking fires, trash and filth. Poverty with elephants the only means of economic survival are brutally chained, some repeatedly throwing themselves on the ground in desperation. Stab wounds, malnutrition the norm, but we have found “Mae Bua Loi”- Floating Lotus – and the negotiations begin. The price $13,000 is agreed upon. She is going back to her village for a farewell ceremony.
We arrive at dusk the next evening. Lek joins the men sitting on the ground, the centerpiece a pig’s head on a platter with money and plenty of liquor for the goodbye ceremony and many spirits. We have had to rent a truck which is outfitted with tree trunks wrapped with blankets felled in the dark to keep her stable on the 20 hour trip back to the sanctuary. We leave about 8. Lek and I are sitting at her feet where fresh fruits – watermelon, mango, banana, jack fruit – are piled for her to munch on the 20 hour journey ahead. She towers over us, her eyes filled with fear, but she is calm. The next afternoon again sitting in the shadow of this magnificent creature we arrive at the Park. Everyone is waiting for us as we drive toward the river. She is unchained for the first time in how long and walks slowly with her new mahout to the river and then into the distance as the sun sets. Tears of joy abound!
The next morning the most incredible thing happens. Bua Loi is walking and munching on grass when out of the trees comes an elephant. They came together slowly with trunks outreached – much touching and feeling. They had lived together in the same village in Burma and had begged in Bangkok. They had not seen each other for 2 years!
As some of you know ‘Losing the Elephants’ premiered to a packed house at the 2008 Santa Barbara International Film Festival. It has gone on to be an official selection at a number of other prestigious festivals including Telluride Mountain Film and its traveling festival which will bring it to audiences worldwide. National Geographic Television chose it to be a part their series ‘Wild Chronicles’ and as a result, a condensed version of the film has been seen by PBS audiences nationwide.
The expected delivery of the re edited film in its full broadcast hour is this summer which will allow ample time to get the film out to the 2009 film festivals including the Jackson Hole Wildlife Film Festival. In addition the film will be presented to broadcast outlets, including National Geographic Television and the Discovery Channel. Thank you all so much for being a part of this incredible project.
Rescued baby elephant from abuse (Faa Sai)
Every year Elephant Nature Park arranges a trip to Surin elephant round up festival to meet with more than 200 elephants who come home to join the festival.
Surin is the province that has most elephants in the country with over 60% of the elephant population in Thailand. Most of them work out side Surin, because the area is very dry and they cannot grow enough food. Many of them end up as street walkers, in circuses and shows and for tourist elephant riding.
The first day when we arrived at the camp we saw the man training his elephant. She is just a tiny female infant and her both legs were chained together. The owner forces her to show tricks to tourists as she struggles with the hobbles.
She is so skinny and appears to have mental problems with her head constantly shaking. She shows anger and impatience. Her mahout gave her food but she just threw it away. He told us the infant refuses food and water and screams loudly during the night .
Both her eyes are infected and full of tears all the time and they open only half-way.
We decided to talk to the owner and try to rescue her, but the negotiations are very difficult and an exorbitant price is asked for the youngsters freedom.
First day we go back – no answer. The second day we go again to talk. The volunteers who with us at the trip as Antoinette van Walter from Bring Elephant Home project, Marry , Cheryl , Magarette, pooled their money to start a rescue fund.
With the help of Singer Rankins from World Woman Work, Nancy Abraham from Alexander Abraham Foundation, Bert Von Roemer from Serengeti Foundation, Miss Marry Cover, Miss Cheryl McMeekan, Margaret Steenduk, Ms Elly Muller, Grant Perera and all donors who sent to Bert’s fund we are able to bring her to the park and offer her a new secure home.
We also have more funding from Faa-Sai which we arrange to rescued one more elephant (Tara).
Today Faa Sai walks freely at Elephant Nature Park and she receives plenty of love here with her new family. Mother elephants have accepted and have already adopted her.
“Tara”, meaning river, is the name of a 45 year old female elephant who had worked in tourist camps offering elephant rides and was used to haul heavy logs. She had injured her back when she was just 6 years old as a trekking elephant and was then put back to work at a logging camp.
Losing the Elephants’ examines an animal that is lodged deep in our psyches, and also one in dire straights. It is estimated that by the early 2050s there will no longer be a viable population of Asian Elephants left. Can we be satisfied with this outcome? Is it important to make sure that the elephants make it?
‘Losing the Elephants’ examines these questions and reveals elephants like no visit to the zoo or circus ever will.Click on movie trailer for a preview of “Losing the elephants”
Rescued baby elephant from abuse (Faa Sai)
“Tara”, meaning river, is the name of a 45 year old female elephant who had worked in tourist camps offering elephant rides and was used to haul heavy logs. She had injured her back when she was just 6 years old as a trekking elephant and was then put back to work at a logging camp.
Losing the Elephants’ examines an animal that is lodged deep in our psyches, and also one in dire straights. It is estimated that by the early 2050s there will no longer be a viable population of Asian Elephants left. Can we be satisfied with this outcome? Is it important to make sure that the elephants make it?